The project is a longitudinal study focusing on children's development of metalinguistic abilities (e.g., judgments of synonymy and acceptability, phonological awareness, rhyming, appreciation of figurative language, etc.). Testing begins when the children are 3 years old and will continue until they are 8, each child being tested three times a year. The first year of data collection has been completed for one sample; as second sample will be started in September, 1980. In addition to examining the developmental courses of several kinds of metalinguistic abilities, the study will examine the developmental relationships among these abilities and between them and language comprehension and cognitive developmental changes occurring during the same age period.